Audiovisual signal routing and distribution system

Abstract

An audiovisual signal is converted from a native format to a digital, packetized interchange format and transported between a capture node and a display node through a switch. The display node converts the audiovisual signal from the interchange format to a displayable format and causes display of the audiovisual signal. The use of a switch for video routing and distribution allows one-to-one, one-to-many, many-to-one, and many-to-many distribution. The use of a device-independent interchange format allows concurrent distribution of multiple heterogeneous audiovisual signals.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This Application is related to the following commonly-assigned and co-pending U.S. Patent Applications: (i) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10 / ______, entitled “A Capture Node for Use in an Audiovisual Signal Routing and Distribution System” (Attorney Docket P-2307 D1) and (ii) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10 / ______ entitled “A Display Node for Use in an Audiovisual Signal Routing and Distribution” (Attorney Docket P-2307 D2), both of which are filed on the same date as this Application and the teachings of which are incorporated herein by reference.FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] This invention relates to the field of audiovisual signal routing and distribution systems, and more specifically to a particularly efficient and flexible system for routing and distributing audiovisual signals of various differing formats. BACKGROUND [0003] A number of high-end video routing and distribution systems currently exist. One example is the Opti...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0013] Another significant advantage is that of heterogeneous video distribution. There is no requirement that the native format received by the capture node and the displayable format produced by the display node be the same. In fact, conversion to and from the agreed-upon interchange format makes format conversion between the source and the display quite simple and almost incidental. In addition, the heterogeneous nature of the audiovisual signals distributed in this manner applies across multiple video sources and multiple displays. In particular, a single switch can route audiovisual signals of various and different native formats to display devices requiring various and different displayable formats.

[0014] Another significant advantage is the adaptability of this system. If a new native format is created and routing and distribution of audiovisual signals of this new native format is desired, a new capture node supporting the new native format and the same negotiated interchange formats is created. No modification to any other capture nodes or any display nodes is required, since interchange formats are negotiated in the same manner, producing an interchange format accepted by pre-existing display nodes. Similarly, support for a new displayable format requires no modification to any capture node or any pre-existing display nodes, only the creation of a new display node that supports the negotiated interchange formats and the new displayable format.

[0015] Another significant advantage is the ease of installation. Since the audiovisual signal is routed as a packetized digital signal, conventional, convenient, and inexpensive copper digital cables (such as Cat5, Cat5E, and Cat6 UTP) or fiber optics can be used.

[0016] Another significant advantage is that high quality video and high quality multi-channel sound can be carried on a single cable, greatly simplifying installation.

Problems solved by technology

Conventional video switches support a number of available video formats but cannot, as a practical matter, support all video formats since the variety of video formats is growing at an increasing rate.

Even if a video switch could feasibly support all such currently-implemented formats, the apparently inevitable introduction of a new format would immediately render such a video switch incomplete as the new format would not be supported.

Besides the impossible task of supporting all currently available video formats and any new ones that might be adopted in the future, current video switches have other disadvantages.

For example, while current video switches can send one incoming video signal to multiple destinations, current video switches lack the ability to send multiple input audiovisual signals to the same output device (e.g., picture-in-picture or picture-beside-picture), to process audiovisual signals of different formats simultaneously, and to receive an audiovisual signal of one format and deliver the audiovisual signal to a display device in another format.

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